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New Windows 10 update will change hardware requirements to 2GB RAM for the first time since 2009

froggyboy604

froggyboy604

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Ever since Windows Vista launched in 2007, the minimum hardware requirements for Windows have remained mostly unchanged (Windows 7 slightly increased the required storage footprint from 15GB of HDD space to 16GB). Now, Windows 10’s Anniversary Update, which drops in roughly two months, will make three significant change for the first time in seven years.

RAM requirements, which have been 1GB for 32-bit installations of the OS and 2GB for 64-bit installations, will now be 2GB across both platforms. The improved memory won’t really impact anyone but system builders, and the overwhelming majority of systems currently ship with more than 2GB of memory anyway. As with other versions of Windows, Windows 10 will technically run with less than the minimum amount of memory; it’ll just page out to your physical storage at an insane rate.

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I think this new 2GB of RAM requirement will cause some people to be disappointed and angry that their cheap $100 or cheaper Windows tablet, laptop/netbook, desktop, and mini-pc computer with 1GB of RAM won't be able to be upgraded to 2GB of RAM to rub smoothly after the update is installed. A lot of cheap computer's RAM can't be upgraded/expanded because many Windows tablets, and cheaper $50-200 computers' RAM is soldered/stuck onto the motherboard's circuit board.

This New 2GB RAM Update Requirement is an important lesson that users should not buy laptops, and desktops where the RAM is stuck onto the PC's motherboard circuit board, so it is can't be upgraded.

There are probably still some older Windows 7 and 8.1 computers which got upgraded to 10, and only have 1GB of RAM because the computer was bought a few years ago when 1GB of RAM was still common on computers which cost $300 or less.
 
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I think most stuff these days are sold at least with 4 GB of RAM.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
I think most stuff these days are sold at least with 4 GB of RAM.
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I think most $100-200 Windows tablets, laptops, and cheap desktops are still sold with 2GB of RAM.

But, most PC which cost $300 and up now comes with 4GB of RAM.
 
I personally don't have a issue since all my gear has 16gb and my low tech computer with 4gb.

What does worry me that all computer's and mostly Tablets will be sold with more memory then ever before with 4gb, and so the price will go up. Most £50 to £100 cheap tablets and phones have 1gb (if lucky) of memory and they probably have to keep running Windows 8.1
 
Empire said:
I personally don't have a issue since all my gear has 16gb and my low tech computer with 4gb.

What does worry me that all computer's and mostly Tablets will be sold with more memory then ever before with 4gb, and so the price will go up. Most £50 to £100 cheap tablets and phones have 1gb (if lucky) of memory and they probably have to keep running Windows 8.1
Click to expand...

According to this article cheaper tablets, and computers with less than 2GB of RAM can still install this Windows Update, but this update will most likely cause their device to slow down a lot because of not having enough Physical RAM, so Windows will use the slower swap file as RAM which is located on the hard drive. I bet, startup times for logging into Windows, and launcing programs will also be slower for people who install this update on cheaper computers with less than 2GB of RAM.

I guest, users with less than 2GB of RAM can disable some startup programs, services, schedule tasks and use software like Notepad, MS Paint, K-Meleon Web Browser and VLC Media Player which don't use up as much RAM compared to WordPad, Photoshop, Google Chrome, and Windows Media Player which uses more RAM.
 
I'd imagine it wouldn't effect too many people, but they should have known the risks - Microsoft made it clear that there would be a cut off point for upgrades for people if specs don't stay in line.
 
froggyboy604 said:
I think most $100-200 Windows tablets, laptops, and cheap desktops are still sold with 2GB of RAM.

But, most PC which cost $300 and up now comes with 4GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't even bother with 4 GB or RAM or less when it comes to a PC. 6 GB seems to do fine these days.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
I wouldn't even bother with 4 GB or RAM or less when it comes to a PC. 6 GB seems to do fine these days.
Click to expand...

I agree, 6GB is good these days for people who want to buy a PC which performs faster, but does not cost a lot. 4GB of RAM can be enough for certain users like people who mainly use Word Processors, listen to music, and other lightweight tasks. But, you always risk not having enough RAM to run a bigger program, or game in the future when you need more than 4GB of RAM in the future.
 
Things should be bigger and better and with the technology improveing, they should be smarter on getting there software to use less memory then ever before. When XP and later was around and still is to a point it doesn't even use 500mb.
 
I think one of the main reasons for increasing the RAM requirements could be because Windows Defender the pre-installed antivirus in Windows 10 can use use up a lot of RAM when running a scan. There are also other security tools like UAC/User Activated Control Windows, Windows Firewall, Malicious Software Removal Tool sometimes may use a lot of RAM trying to protect users from virus and spyware malware.

Those live tiles in the startmenu, and start screen may require more RAM to run smoothly without lag.
 
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